The People At My School

[EntityCubed]

Yes. They're terrible. They are just pea-brained animals amused at how their slew of terrible insults that make no sense put me down. It's awful. If there was a show called "Man vs. Morons", I would be the survivor. So let me give you a situation here that happened today..

I was at the locker, changing. Now, I'm a Christian, and I always wear a cross. Now this idiot comes up and says "Is that a cross?" I say "Yes.". He says "That's gay.". Hold on here.

Gay
1. Homosexual, liking the same gender.
2. Happy, joyful.

First, that's not homosexual, since not everyone who wears a cross is. (I'm not.) And saying that's happy just doesn't make sense.

See how these animals try to dominate the jungle of popularity in school? Idiots. I hope they burn in Hell.

[brainiac3397]

The usage of gay has become so widespread that it no longer seems to have any logical meaning.

I mean...how is wearing a cross gay? or is the cross gay? or is wearing a necklace gay? or is the color of it gay? is Christianity gay? are you just gay and the cross an excuse?


Well, at least "fucking imbecile" still means what it means.

[no]

Yes. Having sex with a stupid person.

[brainiac3397]

That's only if you put an "a(an)" between the two words. You can't assume "fucking imbecile" means "fucking an imbecile" because that's exactly not what I said.

[James Comey]

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  Yes. They're terrible. They are just pea-brained animals amused at how their slew of terrible insults that make no sense put me down. It's awful. If there was a show called "Man vs. Morons", I would be the survivor. So let me give you a situation here that happened today..

I was at the locker, changing. Now, I'm a Christian, and I always wear a cross. Now this idiot comes up and says "Is that a cross?" I say "Yes.". He says "That's gay.". Hold on here.

Gay
1. Homosexual, liking the same gender.
2. Happy, joyful.

First, that's not homosexual, since not everyone who wears a cross is. (I'm not.) And saying that's happy just doesn't make sense.

See how these animals try to dominate the jungle of popularity in school? Idiots. I hope they burn in Hell.

My school is a lot like this. Everyone loves to say, "that's so gay!" and call things they think are dumb "gay". Seriously, the usage of the word "gay" like this is so fucking annoying that I want to punch anyone in the face that uses it this way.

[brainiac3397]

That's gay dude. Keep your gay punches away from my gay face cause I think your gay.

[Christian Hellhound]

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  Yes. They're terrible. They are just pea-brained animals amused at how their slew of terrible insults that make no sense put me down. It's awful. If there was a show called "Man vs. Morons", I would be the survivor. So let me give you a situation here that happened today..

I was at the locker, changing. Now, I'm a Christian, and I always wear a cross. Now this idiot comes up and says "Is that a cross?" I say "Yes.". He says "That's gay.". Hold on here.

Gay
1. Homosexual, liking the same gender.
2. Happy, joyful.

First, that's not homosexual, since not everyone who wears a cross is. (I'm not.) And saying that's happy just doesn't make sense.

See how these animals try to dominate the jungle of popularity in school? Idiots. I hope they burn in Hell.

Cool, a fellow Christian. I wish I had a cross.

The people at my school are like this too, except instead of misuing the word gay, they all say "retarded." Let's not forget putting "fucking" between every fucking word because fucking makes sense no matter where you fucking put it in a sentence. There's maybe 12 people at my school who actually I truly do not despise. The other 988 can get hung, stabbed and disembowled by a tiger because they're just that awful.

[Alistoriv]

I was walking around my neighborhood with a few of my friends and some sixth graders walk by, but don't see us. At that point we decide to follow them doing this thing that's kind of hard to describe where you kind of hold your arms out like a zombie but higher and puff out your cheeks and underneath your lips and tilt your head back. They eventually notice and look back a few times before shouting something and running away. Later, they start following us and shouted that we were "gay" ( Ross's answer being that "Actually, I'm bisexual") and they kept using gay and calling us gay. All of us were older than them of course so we were just laughing until at one point Matt asked them what gay meant and lo and behold, their answer was that it means retarded.

[brainiac3397]

It's hilarious when people who call others gay frequently, also use the following phrases:"Kiss my ass" and "Suck my balls", especially when to someone of the same sex.

And you're calling me gay when you're asking me(a male) to perform the sexual act of sucking on your testicles(also male)...

[xcriteria]

Obviously, a lot of people use "gay" in a similar way to "moron," "imbecile," "stupid," and "retarded." They're used as insults, driven by some kind of anger, hatred, fear, disgust, or at least discomfort.

Of course, there are differences between the specifics of why and how people use those words...

But, why not try other words, like "immature," "insensitive," "angry," "confused," "mindless," and the like?

What I'm saying is, there's more psychological depth involved, even in cruel, insensitive, mindless peers hurling insults. This sort of thing becomes a habit: feel uncomfortable, see something you think is weird, and hurl an insult.

Why not try another approach instead? Ask questions. Break habits of anger-driven judgments and try looking deeper into the causes of human behavior.

Are many humans just inherently messed up, or do these behaviors come from somewhere? Are they, possibly, capable of change? How much is all the meanness among young people a common symptom of youth, and how much is it driven by pain, alienation, boredom, lack of empathy, lack of personal meaning, lack of true passions to follow, and (mindlessly) modeling other people's way of dealing with things?

These are big questions, but they're important. These things come up, again and again. And the language people use to describe (and express frustration toward) each other, and even specific behaviors, can be important.

One way to think more deeply about terms and categories of the not-so-nice characters you encounter is tvtrope's Jerk Index.

But not everyone wants to be a jerk. A lot of people would do things differently if they had access to their mind earlier on in life. If school doesn't help provide it, is there any way something else might?

[xcriteria]

Now, for a more specific response:

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  Yes. They're terrible. They are just pea-brained animals amused at how their slew of terrible insults that make no sense put me down. It's awful.

I'm actually going to quote this over on Justin Schwamm's blog thread for today, Rising to the Challenge. It fits right in with the reply I want to make, asking how Justin's vision of "joyful learning community," relates to all the darkness so many young people experience from each other (let alone the horrors of factory-model schooling, some forms of parenting, and all that.)

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  If there was a show called "Man vs. Morons", I would be the survivor. So let me give you a situation here that happened today..

I think this is one reason Hunger Games might resonate with so many people... life as a fight to the death on the equivalent of a big reality show. It's sad that it has to be either way...

I'm actually working on figuring out a series that addresses a broad range of real situations, just like this one. I think, and hope, there can be a better story than just "misery and meanness," and just maybe, a lot more people are capable of learning an growing than may seem to be the case in so many of these dark scenes.

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  I was at the locker, changing. Now, I'm a Christian, and I always wear a cross. Now this idiot comes up and says "Is that a cross?" I say "Yes.". He says "That's gay.". Hold on here.

Gay
1. Homosexual, liking the same gender.
2. Happy, joyful.

First, that's not homosexual, since not everyone who wears a cross is. (I'm not.) And saying that's happy just doesn't make sense.

How it makes sense, is that "gay" has taken on an additional meaning among some number of people, as an insult used, as far as I can tell, when people feel uncomfortable.

What happens with language is, words almost take on a life of their own. But this is one place where true "education" involves learning to be more conscious about what one says and why. A lot of language comes out of habits. Not everyone, if they reflected on it, would be as mean and mindless as they come across as in some of these scenes...

Changing things can be tough, because of things like self-esteem, resistance to criticism, and other psychological factors like shame. If you want to learn more about human psychology, Brene Brown's several talks on shame and vulnerability are a good place to start.

The challenge is, all of this requires building up some level of empathy, at least in the form of "cognitive empathy," or mental perspective-taking, as people who are acting like the bad guys in your story.

How can you begin to look at people who are being mean and insensitive to you, or people you care about, as human beings, with depth of character, minds, personalities, backstories, and multiple paths forward? It's not automatic or simple, especially when people appear not to have brains, or at least aren't using them.

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  See how these animals try to dominate the jungle of popularity in school? Idiots. I hope they burn in Hell.

It certainly is like a jungle. But, I think there's more to it than just popularity and level of intelligence ("idiots.')

As for burning in Hell... your anger and desire for punishment is understandable... but will the majority of humanity burning in Hell ever change things into a better world?

Maybe it would... but maybe there's another way. And, if there's no path out of Hell, cycles of misery and punishment will continue for eternity.

(And back to brainiac's thread, What Ever Shall We Do?)

[KFC Nyan Cat]

(12-04-2013 06:23 AM)EntityCubed Wrote:  Let's not forget putting "fucking" between every fucking word because fucking makes sense no matter where you fucking put it in a sentence.

I'm guilty of this, especially in school. But I'm largely against using "gay" and "retard" that way.